Casey’s (Division Ave)
5437 Division Avenue SouthI volunteered to work a Friday night. Not something I do often outside of the overtime shifts I work in the fall but the boss asked for a volunteer to work Friday night the day after New Year’s. I had nothing else going on so I took the shift.
Truth be told, there was something in it for me too. L had spent the week in Florida with one of her friends and we had to pick her up at Detroit Metro Airport Friday morning. The family she went to hang out with was driving back to Michigan but they didn’t have room for her in the car and we didn’t want to make them put up with L on an 18 hour road trip.
We booked L on a 6:30 AM flight out of Orlando International Airport. She was scheduled to land in Detroit at about 8:30. J could have handled it herself if I had worked my usual day shift but it’s easier to do these things together. I dropped J off at the terminal so she could get in line to get a pass from Delta to pick L up while B and I parked the car.
Detroit has this cool thing where you can get a “Destination Pass.” You don’t need a boarding pass to get through TSA. You can get a Destination Pass from the kiosk in the terminal and get through security. B and I did that so we could join J at the gate L was coming in to.
I should have gotten a breakfast cheeseburger from Wahlburgers while we were in the terminal but I wasn’t hungry at the time. I regretted that decision as soon as we got on the road. I was hungry and now craving Wahlburgers.
We got back to Kalamazoo just before noon. I had some things to do around the house (mainly snow blowing the driveway) before I had to leave a little after 1:00 to head to Grand Rapids.
I left a early because I had to stop by my office in Kalamazoo to grab some things before heading to the Grand Rapids office. I also needed gas and food.
I got gas in Kalamazoo before leaving but food was going to wait until I got to Kent County. Friday night is pizza night. Right?
I stopped at the Casey’s on the corner of Division and 54th Street in Wyoming. This is one of the old Kum & Go stations that was bought out by Maverick and then Casey’s. The building is fairly new having been built just three years ago. It has a Division Avenue address but you can’t get in to it from Division Avenue unless you go down to the driveway for the Goodwill Store south of the intersection. Most people will come in to the business from the 54th Street side.
The convenience store hasn’t really changed much from the Kum & Go layout. The left side of the store is where the prepared food is. There’s a pretty big dining area as you walk in but it’s only sparsely filled with tables. The Kum & Go filled this space out much better but there are still tables available if you want to sit and eat.
The kitchen is in the back of the space. When it was a Kum & Go, there were order kiosks and things were made fresh. That’s not how Casey’s does things. There’s still a cooler of grab and go sandwiches and salads and drinks next to what used to be the pick up area.
The order kiosks have been replaced with the warming cabinets used to hold prepared food including Casey’s signature pizza.
The other half of the store is typical gas station convenience store items. I grabbed a Pepsi from one of the coolers before I headed to the checkout but that was about the only thing I looked at.
I wrote last time I stopped at a Casey’s that I really needed to try more than just pizza when I blog about these stores. We’re going to be seeing a lot of these pop up and I’m sure I will write a new blog post about every one of them at some point in time.
I did do something a little different this time. I ordered a whole pizza. I was really hungry and I knew I could make it both my lunch and my dinner.
I put in order for a large Sweet Heat Sausage and Pepperoni pizza. I was going to do a medium but the price difference was only a buck. The website was giving me issues and wouldn’t let me pay with a credit card so I just checked pay in store. I got someone’s attention in the kitchen when I got there. She grabbed my pizza from on top of the oven and told me the cashier had the ticket as the cash register. The cost for a large pizza and a bottle of Pepsi was right around $19.
The Sweet Heat Sausage and Pepperoni pizza is just sausage and pepperoni with a hot honey glaze. I used to order whole pizzas from Casey’s all the time back when I lived in Peoria but it’s been at least 15 years since I’ve actually done that.
This happens pretty much anywhere you can get pizza by the slice but the pizza you get in a whole pizza and the pizza you get from the warming cabinet almost taste like two different pizzas. My guess is that’s because the by the slice pizza gets a little over cooked from sitting under the heat lamps. The whole pizza is still delicious, it’s just not quite as firm. This particular pizza is really tasty but also really sticky. You can see the honey pooling on top of the pizza after it melts from the heat. I don’t think hot honey is particularly hot but I do like the flavor and the little bit of spiciness that it brings. I would have loved this pizza if it was just a sausage and pepperoni but the hot honey, as the old TV chef’s say, kicks it up a notch.
We have a few Casey’s starting to get close to Kalamazoo. There’s one being built in Hartford and there are plans for one in Portage. I’m all for it. There’s a nostalgia factor with Casey’s pizza for me but it’s also pretty tasty gas station pizza. I’m really looking forward to having one of these a little closer to home.
SW Michigan Dining 